Are you ready for another U.S. attorney scandal? We haven't talked about Bradley Schlozman, but this NY Times editorial tells the story:

From the facts available, it looks like a main reason for installing Mr. Schlozman [as US Attorney in Missouri] was to help Republicans win a pivotal Missouri Senate race.

Jim Talent, the Republican incumbent, was facing a strong challenge from Claire McCaskill last year when the United States attorney, Todd Graves, resigned suddenly. Mr. Graves suspects that he may have been pushed out in part because he refused to support a baseless lawsuit against the state of Missouri that could have led to voters’ being wrongly removed from the rolls.

Schlozman had no reservations about interfering with the election.

Days before the election, he announced indictments of four people who were registering voters for the liberal group Acorn on charges of submitting false registration forms.

What were Schlozman's qualifications?

More....

The New York Times reports on the role of the informers used in the Fort Dix case. Did they merely facilitate plans already in the minds of the defendants? Or, did they engineer and create the crimes?

Entrapment is likely to be a defense raised by those charged. As in all entrapment cases, the critical issue will be whether those charged were predisposed to commit the crime.

It seems from the article like one of the informers kept jump-starting the plan.

Indeed, over the months that followed, as the targets of the investigation spoke with a sometimes unfocused zeal about waging holy war, the informer, one of two used in the investigation, would tell them that he could get them the sophisticated weapons they wanted. He would accompany them on surveillance missions to military installations, debating the risks, and when the men looked ready to purchase the weapons, it was the informer who seemed to be pushing the idea of buying the deadliest items, startling at least one of the suspects.

....As the case goes forward, the role of the main informer will almost surely be contested. Over the years, informers in terror cases have become the focus of efforts by defense lawyers and others to call into question the legitimacy of the investigations. They have often sought to show that informers engaged in entrapment.

One of the informers in the Fort Dix case presents another problem for the Government:

More...

I missed this from Tuesday:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq's parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 (of 275) lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

Okaaay. The US Congress votes for Debacle without end and the Purple Finger chosen Iraqi Parliament says go.

Does it matter to anyone? The Iraqis want us to leave but we refuse. Unbelievable.

John Aravosis reports:

I just heard from an impeccable source that there is serious concern on the Hill that conservative Democrats in the House will vote with the Republicans to strip any and all restrictions from the Iraq supplemental tomorrow, effectively giving Bush all the money he wants with no restrictions and no effort to hold either him or the Iraq government accountable for anything.

uh, no:

After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.

Stick a fork in him. Someone needs to tell Rudy that Arnold Vinick was a TV character.

Wal-Mart has managed to do something socially useful, although its motive is suspect. A judge wanted to impose a shaming punishment on Wal-Mart shoplifers, ordering them to spend two Saturday afternoons in front of Wal-Mart with a sign that said, "I am a thief, I stole from Wal-Mart."

Wal-Mart was against this punishment before it was for it.

[Judge] Robertson said he had long tried to get the store to agree to the punishment, but had been turned down. Then, he said, company officials "told me just out of the blue without me inquiring, saying, 'Go ahead and do it, we think it's a great idea.'"

After two men were forced to carry the placards outside a Wal-Mart, the company changed its mind again. A Wal-Mart spokesman says the company had concerns for the safety of the men, although it was more likely concerned about corporate liability if the men were hurt on Wal-Mart property. Or maybe too many people driving by were cheering the "I stole from Wal-Mart" sign.

Via quaoar, the Pope has strongly backed Catholic clergy in their decision to excommunicate politicians who support choice:

Speaking to reporters on his way to Brazil, Pope Benedict has backed Mexican bishops who have threatened excommunication for parliamentarians who voted to legalise abortion in Mexico City. . . . "Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

Passing a law giving women the right to choose is not having an abortion so the logic escapes me here. I guess there is some accomplice theory but I have to wonder, what about laws allowing for birth control, also viewed as a grave sin by the Catholic Church:

the Catholic church also teaches that many methods of contraception would be a violation of natural law and therefore morally evil because they interfere with the natural processes such as condoms, diaphragms, other barrier methods, spermicides, intrauterine devices, chemical methods such as pills, patches, injections, and implants. Likewise the Catholic Church views surgical sterilization methods as being opposed to natural law because they prevent the possibility of conception.

Some politicians in the world voted to allow birth control. Are they going to be excommunicated?

And what about remarriage?

Update [2007-5-9 23:42:19 by Big Tent Democrat]: John Boehner attended the meeting but did not talk. The attendees included Boehner, Dent, Kirk, Tom Davis, Ray LaHood, Ann Emerson, Gerlach of PA and Walsh of NY. All in tough districts, some of which barely survived in last year's election. This is a Rove operation. You can smell it.

'You have no credibility on Iraq Mr. President.'

'My district is ready for defeat.'

-GOP Congresspersons in meeting with President Bush Tuesday.

MSNBC reports that 11 GOP Congresspersons met with the President and told him they are not happy with the Iraq Debacle. They say General Petraeus must tell them things are getting better. Presumably in September.

We'll see if this means anything. I do not think it means much of anything personally. These are 11 GOP Congresspersons who are probably facing tough races and want some cover. 11, 20, or even 30 GOP defections won't overcome a veto.

For this to matter, you have to believe Bush will listen to these folks. I do not. I think this is, as Craig Crawford describes it, more rope a dope:

While some Republican lawmakers seem sincere in calling for a quality check in September for President George W. Bush’s war surge, there is a familiar pattern here. Back in December, when Bush announced his new Iraq strategy, his GOP war supporters — and even the White House itself — had pinpointed this summer as the soft deadline for determining whether it is working. But early last month the president announced that the troop boost would not even be completed until June, thus buying a few more months. . . .

This is more of the same imo.

Given that VECO Corp. has admitted that it bribed Republican politicians in Alaska, should other Republican politicians, including President Bush, untaint themselves by returning the campaign contributions that they accepted from VECO?

Since 1990, Anchorage-based VECO, its employees and their family members gave the state and national Republican parties, GOP congressional candidates and Bush slightly more than $1 million, according to an analysis by watchdog Center for Responsive Politics.

One of the VECO executives who entered a guilty plea to bribery, CEO Bill Allen, was the state financial co-chairman of Bush's 2000 campaign. Heckuva job there, Billy.

CNN's latest poll misstates the Reid-Feingold proposal:

21. One proposal would NOT provide additional funds for US troops in Iraq and would require the US withdraw all its troops by March 2008. Would you favor or oppose such a bill?

There is no such proposal. CNN is either incompetent, my choice, or deliberately not telling the truth about the Reid-Feingold proposal.

The proper question for the Reid-Feingold proposal would say:

One proposal would provide additional funds for US troops in Iraq up to a date certain, March 31, 2008, and then would require the US withdraw all its troops by March 2008 by NOT providing funding after March 31, 2008. Would you favor or oppose such a bill?

Is CNN incompetent? Or deliberately misstating what the Reid-Feingold proposal is? This is inexcusable from a supposedly reputable news organization. This poll is a sham.

Yesterday we were informed about a new Democratic plan for funding the Iraq Debacle:

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives said on Tuesday that they will try to pass a new Iraq war-funding bill to keep combat operations running for the next two or three months while also forcing a troop withdrawal vote in July. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said a vote could come as early as Thursday on a new plan to provide more than $30 billion now for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan before existing war funds run out. Another $10 billion or so would beef up veterans health care and other military programs.

Today, President Bush promised to veto such legislation:

U.S. President George W. Bush would veto an emerging House of Representatives bill which would include limits on funding for the Iraq war, White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Wednesday.

"There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill," Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew with Bush to visit parts of Kansas devastated by tornadoes last week.

Asked whether Bush would veto the bill in its current form, Snow said: "Yes."

Well now, how will Dems deal with Bush on Iraq now? Clearly he wants what he wants and will not budge on it. Senator Obama and some other folks look to September for a veto-proof majority to overcome Bush's intransigence. Let's hope they are right. I am confident they are wrong.

To me, everything points to one way to end the Debacle - announce a date certain when the Iraq Debacle will not be funded. Yes, the Reid-Feingold framework.

New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame hung up his pen last weekend, making way for a new Public Editor, Clark Hoyt.

Calame provided a model, imo, for how to do the job. Unlike his awful predecessor, Daniel Okrent, Calame was a newspaperman, and knew his way around a newsroom and the processes that permit the nightly miracle of the production of a newspaper, particularly a newspaper like the New York Times.

Unlike Okrent, Calame welcomed the attention of Times readers:

It has been an honor to be entrusted to pursue concerns about The Times on behalf of you, the readers, and to monitor the integrity of the journalism practiced by the talented staff of this outstanding newspaper. It has been especially gratifying to hear from those of you whose questions and criticisms showed that you take seriously your obligation to be informed so you can be a more effective citizen in our democracy. I only wish there had been more such critics, those I came to think of as ”citizen readers.” And while you often deserved more breadth and vision than I had to offer, please know that I have given the job my all — for you and for the craft that I love.

Calame embodied what I believe the attitude and function of a Public Editor should be. He leaves big shoes to fill.